Max Baucus Returns, Part 2

TPM got a peek at Sen. Max Baucus's cards, and surprise! He's giving Americans a busted flush.

A quick update on this post. More details have emerged from the Associated Press bringing a bit of clarity to the question of what's going on in the Senate Finance Committee.

AP is now reporting-- that the Senate Finance Committee will likely call for the creation of a system of non-profit co-operatives in lieu of a public option--something which has been in the works for weeks--but will not require employers to provide insurance for their workers.

Let's run that again, folks. Non-profit co-ops instead of a public option, and no employee mandate. I can't say I'm surprised (nobody expected Baucus to endorse the public option) but the lack of employee mandate makes this a non-starter, frankly. It's basically the Wyden-Bennett plan, and with no employee mandate, it's actually a worse version of the Wyden-Bennett plan that won't do a thing to lower health care costs. Without a mandate, companies will just continue to cut their health care coverage as they can no longer afford it due to the economy. Without a public option, health insurance companies have no incentive to lower costs making it that much more likely that companies will continue to drop health care coverage altogether.

It's a disaster, is how I'm reading it.